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The Smart Home 2019. Year in Review

You can tell where Smart Home Automation is going in the new decade. How? By looking at our past. The year 2019 has given us so many insights into the Smart Home of the Future. We’re going to talk about 5 significant Smart Home trends in 2019. Thank you for supporting Automate Your Life by clicking our affiliate links.

Privacy in the Smart Home

Whether it was Apple, Google, or Amazon, there was one common theme in their annual announcements… PRIVACY. The Big Three got a ton of slack this year due to the lack of Privacy in the Privacy Policy. Their quick fix was to ensure that your data (questions you asked; search history; conversations, communications) could be deleted with a quick command to Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant: “Hey [Insert Assistant Here], Delete everything I said.” The history would then be deleted. You would feel safer (?) However, we would be amiss if we didn’t talk about data breaches (more security vs. privacy) that occurred all over the Smart-Home-world in 2019. Most recently; Waze, the smart home sweetheart just announced a breach in their systems. Privacy started to matter in 2019.

Small to Mid-size Smart Home Automation Companies in 2019

Speaking of Wyze, Wyze grew from a small Smart Camera business to an integrated Smart Home Automation Company in less than 2 years. That’s phenomenal, thinking about the complexity of a competitive product like the Wyze Cam (US, Canada, UK) and expanding the line of business into other successful products like the Wyze Sense, which everyone should try to use in their smart home – it’s cost-effective and works well. (US, Canada).

Another great example of small to mid-size technology companies on the rise includes Tile and Flic. Tile has found more ways to integrate into all the products that you use and love. More INNOVATION! That word excites me. You can read more about this in our Tile with Google Assistant article. I’m finding ways to include the Tile and Flic devices into my home as we speak. It’s fun. If you’re interested in the Tile or Flic, you can use our affiliate links: Tile (US, Canada, UK) or Flic (US, Canada, UK)

Smart Home in 2019 Going Local

We have been ingrained that everything needs to be on the cloud. I would say that over the past 5 years, we’ve seen ‘cloud’ this and that and how awesome everything would be if it were managed outside your home. However, I am so thankful that we’ve developed technology to keep the smart home within your home. There has been a big push from the Majors (Samsung, Amazon, Google, Apple) to find ways to get your smart home devices to work as local hubs in your home. I think this has shown that these companies are trying to give you relevant home automation solutions. This gives you more reliability to connect to your devices, and more ways to innovate.

Smart Home Automation Companies Working Together in 2019

Thread. DotDot. The future. Brian from Automate Your Life has talked about it since the beginning of 2019. Now all the companies are getting on board. By the time 2020 rolls over, there should be a new ‘ConnectedHome over IP’ standard that will integrate Alexa, HomeKit, Google Assistant, and Zigbee Dotdot. Let’s hope that this Working Group develops into something that can keep everything connected safely and secure. We should also mention that Z-Wave has opened up its protocol to Open Source development as well.

Smart Home Dominance in 2019: Amazon

We joke about the name that should not be mentioned. However, Alexa is becoming introduced in so many homes. In Q3, 2019. Amazon increased its market share to just over 35% of the Smart Home Market (our home calculation).

This might mean, that Amazon might just keep the momentum going. They are finding ways to develop devices to integrate into every part of home living. This is big. We need to keep watch. Automaters, you need to tell the world what you need and want to ensure you get the products you need.

The Smart Home 2019. A Good Year.

2019 was good in so many ways. We’ve seen technology improve our lives. We’ve found ways to save time and money by Automating Your Life.